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Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Putin Orders Strong Military Presence in Arctic

National claims to the Arctic shelf


MOSCOW, December 10 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military on Tuesday to boost its presence in the Arctic and complete the development of military infrastructure in the region next year.

“I request that you pay special attention to the deployment of infrastructure and military units in the Arctic,” Putin said at an expanded meeting of the Defense Ministry Board.

Putin said Russia is actively developing this promising region and should have all means for protection of its security and national interests there.

Arctic territories, believed to hold vast untapped oil and gas reserves, have increasingly been at the center of disputes between the United States, Russia, Canada, Norway and Denmark as rising temperatures lead to a reduction in sea ice.

Russia has made claims on several Arctic shelf areas and is planning to defend its bid at the United Nations.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that a combined-arms force will be deployed in the Arctic in 2014 to protect the country’s interests in the region.

As part of the ambitious program, the Russian military is planning to reopen airfields and ports on the New Siberian Islands and the Franz Josef Land archipelago that were mothballed in 1993.

Shoigu said that at least seven mothballed military airfields on the continental part of the Arctic Circle will also be restored.

Credit to RIA Novosti

The Pain In Spain Is Mainly... Everywhere

Despite the ratings agencies (Moody's Dec 5th and S&P Nov 22nd) seemingly premature raising of the outlook for the nation's sovereign credit rating (from negative to stable), economic hardship in Spain looks likely to continue as loan defaults surge and the unemployment rate remains the second highest in the EU.

25% of Working Population to Stay Unemployed
The IMF predicts Spain’s unemployment rate will remain at 25 percent or higher until 2018 even after the nation exited its recession in the third quarter. Spanish households’ average income fell to 23,123 euros per year in 2012, compared with 25,556 euros in 2008, the National Statistics Institute said on Nov. 20. That leaves 22.2 percent of the population at risk of poverty, according to Eurostat.
Bad Debts at Record High
Record bad loans may restrain the economic recovery. Spanish banks’ bad debt as a proportion of total lending rose to a record 12.68 percent in September, according to Bank of Spain data that began in 1962. Missed payments on mortgages are rising and defaults as a proportion of total mortgages jumped to 5.2 percent in the second quarter from 3.2 percent a year earlier.
House Prices May Fall Further
Banks are likely to remain under pressure as real estate values fall. House prices are down 28.2 percent from their peak. Fewer than 15,000 mortgages were granted in September, compared with about 129,000 at the September 2005 peak, according to the National Statistics Institute, pointing to more price declines. House prices may drop a further 13 percent by the end of 2014, S&P forecasts.
Corruption Levels Rise Most in Europe
Spain’s levels of perceived corruption rose the most in Europe last year, Transparency International’s annual rankings show. Spain fell six points to 59, ranking it 40th in the world. Only Syria fell by more. The so-called gray economy represents 18.6 percent of GDP according to analysis by Friedrich Schneider for the Institute of Economic Affairs. That is equivalent to about 183 billion euros.
But apart from that... it's all good in Spain...
Credit to Zero Hedge

The American civil war nears as 14 Governors : Prepare State Militia Defenses Against Obama’s Federal Forces

network

Obama fearing a revolution against him by the states, has moved swiftly by nationalizing nearly all National Guard Forces in multiple states; Georgia, Alabama, Kansas, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, Louisiana, South Carolina – to name a few. 

The Governors of the Great States of Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia still have under their Command-and-Control the State Defense Forces to go against U.S. Federal forces should the need arise. 

Also important to note: There are NO U.S. laws prohibiting National Guard troops from also joining their State’s Defense Forces. 

This dilemma occurred during the Civil War with many “citizen soldiers” choosing to serve their states instead of the Federal Government. Obama is angered by the several State Governors who have reestablished “State Defense Forces.” These forces are described as: “State Defense Forces (also known as State Guards, State Military Reserves, State Militias) in the United States are military units that operate under the sole authority of a state government; they are not regulated by the National Guard Bureau nor are they part of the ArmyNational Guard of the United States. 

State Defense Forces are authorized by state and federal law and are under the command of the governor of each state. State Defense Forces are distinct from their state’s National Guard in that they cannot become federal entities.

Credit to Countdown to Zero Time

Obama's "Change" is Nothing But A Communist Revolution

The Psychological Profile of President


mentally ill obama
In the midst of the series I am writing in which I am detailing the existence of governmental plans to brutally subjugate the people, it dawned upon me that a President can have all the draconian legislation behind him that he needs to carry out a brutal agenda against his people or a segment of his population without having the psychological makeup to do so. This article examines whether Obama has the psychological make-up to carry out such an agenda.
Obama will be president for another three years barring bad health or an impeachment followed by a successful conviction. Therefore, it is prudent to ask a very important question; Does President Obama have the psychological makeup to carry out a heinous agenda against a large segment of the American people? Most Americans will initially scoff at the notion that this President could be judged to be psychologically impaired. What makes Americans so sure that all of our leaders could take on the traits of a Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao and Hitler? People should remember that many from Hitler’s party were democratically elected and Germany had a constitution prior to the Nazi takeover.

The Preconditions Needed for a Brutal Martial Law Takeover

Dictators invariably emerge on a scene at a time of great conflict. State-sponsored genocides frequently follow coups, civil wars or can become part of a national landscape in a declared martial law.
Economic crises often provide a backdrop from which roundups of dissidents are conducted, families are separated, undesirables are executed and genocide can take place.  Often, a particular segment of a society is ostracized and used as scapegoat in order to provide a point of unification for a people in crisis in a classic divide and conquer strategy. Further, leaders of a brutal martial law movement grant themselves legal immunity from prosecution by making their heinous actions legal before they occur.
Many of these preconditions are in evidence in modern day America. The American economy is in the worst shape than at any time in our history as it is in near free fall in which the interest payments on the debt exceed our revenue as a nation. Obama, as well as members of his administration, have engaged in the “divide and conquer” strategy of race baiting. Obama’s incessant fanning of the flames of the Trayvon Martin case is an excellent example of a president who is dividing a nation instead of helping heal a nation.
Obama has done nothing but polarize this nation along the lines of gay rights, forcing the issue of abortion and contraception upon an unwilling public through Obamacare, promoting the rights of illegal aliens over that of citizens, promoting black vs. white division, Muslim vs. Christian, poor vs. rich and Christian vs. non-Christian. America has no shortage of potential sparks for division in this country thanks to this president’s ineffective and suspect leadership. Finally, through the NDAA and Executive Order 13603, this President has given himself the authority to do anything he deems necessary in a time of his choosing.
In the final analysis, I judge the conditions to be ripe for a brutal martial law crackdown to occur for the reasons listed in the previous paragraph. The $64 million dollar question is whether or not this president has the psychological make-up necessary to carry out just such an agenda.
In one of my former careers, I worked as a therapist for convicts, sentenced by the courts to a large halfway, inpatient, residential center. During my two years at this facility, I encountered various mental illnesses which manifested in a person’s behavior in a variety of ways. Diagnostics and prescribing a course of intervention were my main duties. I performed many roles in this facility ranging from individual and group counseling, family group counseling and I administered several aspects of a life skills education program. Today, I teach these clinical intervention skills to undergraduate and graduate students. For the purposes of this article, I am going to use my professional expertise in an effort to assess if President Obama is capable of carrying out an agenda of extreme repression against the American people.

The Baseline Elements of Analysis

History has shown that most of the brutal dictators of the past have shared three mental illnesses, namely, Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), Paranoid Personality Disorder (PPD) and Antisocial personality disorder (ASPD).
Before analyzing President Obama according to these criteria, based upon observed public behaviors, please allow me to make a few general observations with regard to these three conditions. NPD sufferers believe that they are entitled to special privilege and that the rules of society apply to others but not to them. PPD individuals are people who are unusually suspicious in situations in which most people would not be concerned. They frequently change allies and lack stable relationships in their lives. Finally, ASPD people are a combination of what we used to call a sociopath and a psychopath. These people are capable to doing great harm to another human being without feeling any empathy and remorse. This is the central element in the personality structure of a person who would commit genocide against their own people.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

narcissistIn order for a person to be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) they must meet five or more of the following symptoms:
  •  Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power,brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
  • Believes that he or she is “special” and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
  • Requires excessive admiration
  • Has a very strong sense of entitlement, e.g., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
  • Is exploitative of others, e.g., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
  • Lacks empathy, e.g., is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
  • Is often envious of others or believes that others are envious of him or her
  • Regularly shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes
Five out eight of these symptoms are sufficient cause to warrant a positive diagnosis. Obama is one of the most self-righteous people on the planet and we have numerous quotes which exemplify this point.
“We are five days away from fundamentally transforming America”. Very few Americans had any idea what Obama meant by that quote. Five years into his presidency, it is clear that Obama meant to turn this country into an impoverished nation devoid of civil liberties. This is the ultimate expression of the communist legacy that he is trying to build.
This president does not tolerate normal criticism which comes with the territory of being a president. He has consistently sponsored legislation which inhibits the constitutionally guaranteed rights of legitimate protest with his support of the NDAA. This is the ultimate in haughtiness.
Obama exhibits extreme signs of feeling a sense of entitlement. His incessant misuse of the power of executive orders provides prima fascia evidence that “his will be done” and that he is above the law with regard to violating the constitutional rights of the American people.
Obama is an extremely exploitative person. However, in the grand scheme of politics, it is a needed survival skill to take advantage of people in one’s climb to the top of the political world. Therefore, is Obama exploitative by nature, or, do the political realities of his position dictate the emergence of this trait as a survival skill? The jury is out on this one.
“You did not build that business”. Remember that insulting and impersonal slap in the face of every small business owner in America? This statement is reflective of Obama’s view that nobody is bigger than “my” government.
The President’s recent statement in which he bragged he was really good at killing people by using drones speaks to his extreme level of insensitivity.
Of the eight traits associated with this disorder, I see seven of the eight with the eighth trait not being supported due to a lack of evidence.
President Obama clearly suffers from NPD. People with NPD can indeed function to some degree in society. However, they often make very ineffective leaders because they almost always put their needs ahead of the needs of the people they purport to serve.

Paranoid Personality Disorder

To make a positive diagnosis for this disorder, I would have to possess intimate details about the life of Obama. Unfortunately, that information is not readily available. Here are the traits of PPD.
  • Suspects, without sufficient basis, that others are exploiting, harming, or deceiving him or her
  • Is preoccupied with unjustified doubts about the loyalty or trustworthiness of friends or associates
  • Is reluctant to confide in others because of unwarranted fear that the information will be used maliciously against him or her
  • Reads hidden demeaning or threatening meanings into benign remarks or events
  • Persistently bears grudges (i.e., is unforgiving of insults, injuries, or slights)
  • Perceives attacks on his or her character or reputation that are not apparent to others, and is quick to react angrily or to counterattack
  • Has recurrent suspicions, without justification, regarding fidelity of spouse or sexual partner
Certainly Obama’s known childhood experiences, especially with that of living with Frank Marshall Davis, undoubted scarred him and left him with feelings of extreme abandonment. This factor, alone, could prove to be the breeding ground for PPD.
As I have previously covered, I know that most of his first degree relatives were involved in MK Ultra. Certainly the breeding ground for PPD is in place given his unstable background.
military purgeSince we lack highly detailed information about his personal life, it is difficult to affirmatively diagnose Obama with this disorder, except for one thing. Since becoming president, Obama has fired nearly 200 command level officers from the military. In contrast, President Bush fired two. This would be the expected actions of a highly paranoid individual in that he would dismantle the command structure of military in such a significant manner. Although I cannot point to the fact that Obama has a requisite number of traits which determines that he is suffering from PPD, I think it is highly likely.

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Of all the mental illnesses we could examine with regard to a leader’s propensity to commit extreme violence against his people, this would be the most concerning of all the mental illnesses. This disorder also happens to be where Obama has exhibited extreme pathological behavior with regard to this affliction. The traits of ASPD are as follows:
  • Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest
  • Deceitfulness, as indicated by repeated lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure
  • Impulsivity or failure to plan ahead
  • Irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults
  • Reckless disregard for safety of self or others
  • Consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations
  • Lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt an individual. They may display a glib, superficial charm and can be quite voluble and verbally facile (e.g., using technical terms or jargon that might impress someone who is unfamiliar with the topic). Lack of empathy, inflated self-appraisal, and superficial charm are features that have been commonly included in traditional conceptions of psychopathy and may be particularly distinguishing of Antisocial Personality Disorder in prison or forensic settings where criminal, delinquent, or aggressive acts are likely to be nonspecific. These individuals may also be irresponsible and exploitative in their sexual relationships.
sociopath 1We know that this administration fired two senior command officers and prevented them from attempting to rescue Ambassador Stevens and his bodyguards, at Benghazi, while the attack was in progress. We also know that he and other senior level members of his administration watched by drone as the events unfolded and culminated in the deaths of Stevens and his team. As I have documented on this website, the evidence points to the fact that Stevens was the conduit which connected Obama to the arming of al-Qaeda in support of the Libyan and Syrian rebels.

sociopath 2Obama’s use of drones to kill not only foreign nationals, but three American citizens, speaks to his depraved indifference to human life. The fact that he is continuing the war in Afghanistan, despite his campaign promises to the contrary, speaks to his absolutely reckless disregard for human life. People have been killed by drones as they attend weddings, babies die in their mother’s arms and children are maimed and killed by these machines and Obama brags that he is good at killing people with drones.
Obama has extreme superficial charm. After all, he twice fooled a nation of sheep with his manufactured demeanor. Obama is highly impulsive. His assistants do not know if he will attend an intelligence briefing or will he be on the golf course.
President Obama has never held a real job. He has served as a community agitator (err community activist), a state senator, a less than a one-term US Senator and then of course, a President. Where is his employment history? The bottom line is that this President has never held a regular job.
The President has engaged in repeated acts of lying and breaking the law as witnessed by the events at Benghazi, the NSA spy scandal, the IRS harassment scandal, Obama’s spying on AP reporters, Fast and Furious gun running to the Mexican drug cartels, etc. This administration has been little more than one great big criminal enterprise.
The sum total of Obama’s actions demonstrate a willful disregard for the welfare of others. ASPD individuals frequently use aliases. Do you think that “Barry”, the student, attending Occidental College would ever do such a thing?
Of the seven traits listed above, one would have to claim the presence of four of the seven traits in order to justify a diagnosis of ASPD. I see six of seven traits being exhibited by President Obama. His superficial charm, his lack of remorse for his heinous acts and his inability to learn from his mistakes, unquestionably cast him in the role of being an ASPD individual.

Conclusion

Obama may or not be paranoid, although his treatment of the military would indicate that he is. Unquestionably, President Obama is suffering from NPD and ASPD. This is very concerning because a leader with NPD would not hesitate to put his needs ahead of the country that he is leading. This fact, combined with his definitive diagnosis, of an ASPD sufferer means that a person with the combination of these two traits would not hesitate to carry out acts of extreme violence against individuals and groups perceived as being a threat to the authority and position of President Obama.
We, indeed, have much to be concerned over. We can only hope that the next three years will quickly pass and Obama will not have the ability to act fast enough to preserve his tenure in office, should that ever be threatened. For a person with this psychological profile, would not likely hesitate to enact false flag attacks and engage in the extreme persecution of individuals and groups deemed to be a threat if it meant preserving his Presidency.
Credit to The Common Sense

Thailand: Historic Turnout Shakes Regime

On December 9, 2013 at 9:39am was set to be the largest anti-regime rally yet in Thailand's latest bid to oust the Wall Street-backed dictatorship of Thaksin Shinawatra. Even the night before, massive numbers of people flooded into several protesting sites, and by morning a torrent of tens of thousands poured through the streets of Bangkok to join them.

For miles in every direction, protesters could be seen streaming to and from protest sites on foot, by train, subway, bus, car, motorcycle, and bike. Several organized mass rallies marched through the streets, while thousands upon thousands made their own way. Food courts, restaurants and cafes across the city were filled with protesters staging in small groups before setting out with larger ones.

By evening, the trademark Thai flag arm bands, ribbons, and flags could be seen carried by people scattered all over the city. Areas such as the prime minister's office (Government House), were filled to capacity and no longer accessible by additional protesters. Impressive protest sites that had occupied the entire width of major roads in the city for weeks, now had protester camps sprawling deep into side streets.




Image: In what is usually an empty intersection on the edge of one permanently occupied protest site, has been filled to capacity by protesters on Monday, December 9, 2013. This second historical turnout in as many months has further shaken the illusion that the regime commands the support of the vast majority of the Thai population. The regime would go on to cancel a planned counter-rally scheduled for the next day, surely to be embarrassingly dwarfed by today's events.

The Message is Clear: Thaksin is Never Coming Home

With the vast resources of Wall Street and his own personal ill-gotten gain, de facto dictator of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, has never managed to marshal so much support. His counter-rally planned for the next day in a nearby province was canceled - his regime claims because it has already stepped down and is waiting for elections. However, realistically, the fight is far from over, and if Thaksin had the support, now would be the time to show it. It simply isn't there.



Image: Regime thugs line the streets in Thaksin Shinawatra's rural stronghold, the province of Udon Thani in the nation's northeast. Their goal was to intimidate would-be protesters into not taking to the streets, as hundreds of thousands were all over the country else where. Despite the fear and division Thaksin has tried to sow in the Thai population, protesters in Udon Thani still marched.

Even in his stronghold, the rural northeast of Thailand, anti-regime protesters flocked to provincial halls. In what could be considered one of the the very centers of his support, the province of Udon Thani, the regime deployed thugs armed with clubs, but still failed to deter protesters from demonstrating. The barriers of fear and helplessness carefully created and cultivated by the regime, are at last crumbling.

While Thaksin may have no true support in the streets, what he does have is an impoverished, intentionally poorly educated, exploited, and manipulated constituency at the polls. They are eager for his destructive populist policies, either indifferent or ignorant of the short- and long-term damage they will do (and already have done) to the country. He is eager to call for elections he knows he will readily win with reckless handouts no other party would be irresponsible enough to propose, in an attempt to once again return himself and his proxy regime to power.

Why Elections are Currently Unacceptable
The regime's current strategy is to appear reasonable, even soft, in the face of unreasonable demands and "mobs" it and its Western backers have portrayed as violent. By calling for elections, it is hoped that the average onlooker only sees a government attempting to do the reasonable and "fair" thing - to let the "people" decide. What it doesn't want onlookers to see is how it has rigged the elections through cartoonish campaign promises (cars, houses, free computers, overpaying for rice) readily believed by an exploited electorate.

And while the country is officially run by prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, her position is one in title only. Her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra openly runs the country from various locations around the world, as he evades a 2-year jail sentence, 2 arrest warrants, and a lengthy list of pending court cases. His "openly running" the country is not merely the accusations of his political opponents within Thailand, but the observations of Western journalists as well. Earlier this year, the New York Times wrote in its article, "In Thailand, Power Comes With Help From Skype:"

Millions of people across the globe have cut the tethers to their offices, working remotely from home, airport lounges or just about anywhere they can get an Internet connection. But the political party governing Thailand has taken telecommuting into an altogether different realm.
For the past year and a half, by the party’s own admission, the most important political decisions in this country of 65 million people have been made from abroad, by a former prime minister who has been in self-imposed exile since 2008 to escape corruption charges. 

The country’s most famous fugitive, Thaksin Shinawatra, circles the globe in his private jet, chatting with ministers over his dozen cellphones, texting over various social media platforms and reading government documents e-mailed to him from civil servants, party officials say.Of course, this fact is now conveniently skipped over by the same Western media, or brushed off as insignificant, now that the regime's credibility has been called into question and it clings desperately to power. Another election would only see another proxy put into place for Thaksin to remotely direct from his private jet, 5 star hotel in Dubai, or luxury lodgings in Cambodia or Hong Kong.

The enduring myth used to justify Thaksin's grip on power is that he holds popular support across Thailand. However, this myth can easily be challenged by election results themselves and detailed electorate surveys carried out by Thaksin's own Western backers.

According to the Election Commission, in 2011's general election, Thaksin's proxy party received 15.7 million votes out of the estimated 32.5 million voter turnout (turnout of approx. 74%). This gives Thaksin's proxy party a mere 48% of those who cast their votes on July 3rd (not even half), and out of all eligible voters, only a 35% mandate to actually "lead" the country.



As of 2010, Thaksin's "reds" made up at best only 14% of the population
And while careful choreography is used to portray Thaksin's so-called "red shirt" supporters as omnipresent and holding a commanding majority across Thailand's political landscape, a detailed survey of Thailand's electorate in 2010 revealed a mere 7% identified themselves as being "red," with another 7% considering themselves only "leaning toward red." The political rank and file that support Thaksin's opponents in the Democrat party have an equally unimpressive following - leaving what is widely referred to in Thailand as the "silent majority."

Next
The silent majority, in recent months, is silent no more. People who have avoided Thailand's color coded political struggles have decided Thailand would be better without the Shinawatra family, their regime, their political machine, including the "red shirt" movement, and the foreign interests that have propped them all up for the last decade. They do not follow the leaders on stage, but rather the idea of uprooting this regime and preventing another from taking its place.

With a second unprecedented display of dissent against the ruling regime, and with prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra dissolving the parliament, the next battle will be to challenge the regime's intentions of simply re-installing itself in another round of stolen elections. Protest leaders had promised to end the rally today if no one showed up - of course, the rally will now continue on, building additional pressure upon the regime until it can finally be lifted up from the ground, and hauled away for good.


Credit to The Activist Post

Snow falling In Australia In the summer.

Al Gore....you are fired


UPDATE: A day after we posted images of fresh summer snow falling across the Australian Alps, we've updated our original story with new images that show the ground getting whiter... and whiter... and whiter.

Thredbo resort in new South Wales is now in the very unusual position of desperately needing its snow to melt. Thredbo has a huge mountain bike event this weekend but the course is currently snow-covered. Hopefully, forecast warmer tempreatures will take care of things.

Meanwhile, here are one or two pics to get you going. And as mentioned, scroll through yesterday's story (below) for another updated image or two.




Yes, that’s the correct date. The upper slopes of Thredbo this morning (Friday) Source: NewsComAu



And THAT’S why they have orange poles. Perisher ski resort in NSW yesterday during the summer blizzard. Source:NewsComAu

THURSDAY'S STORY

THIS is just the beginning. The really cold air and the really heavy snow is due later in the day, but snow is already falling today across the high country of New South Wales and Victoria.

And yes, it's December 5. The fifth day of summer. Your calendar is not wrong.

Snow is not a freak event in southern Australia in the warmer months. A small dusting usually appears on the higher parts of the Australian Alps at least once each summer.

Today's system is a little stronger than your typical out-of-season wintry blast, and snow accumulations could reach as much as 20 cm by tonight.

The weather bringing the snow is the same cold southerly system which has brought unseasonal cold to Adelaide on Day One of the second Ashes Test. The good news is the cricket should be largely unaffected.

The bad news, in a sporting sense, is that Thredbo ski resort is hosting a huge mountain bike event called The Cannonball MTB festival this weekend. Athletes have come from around the world for the event, and while it will still take place once today's snow melts (and December snow always melts really quickly), training is being disrupted.

Credit to News.com.au

THE MOST HOMELESS CHILDREN IN NEW YORK CITY SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION



At a time when Wall Street is absolutely swimming in wealth, New York City is experiencing an epidemic ofhomelessness. According to the New York Times, the last time there was this many homeless children in New York City was during the days of the Great Depression. And the number of homeless children in the United States overall recently set a new all-time record. As I mentioned yesterday, there are now 1.2 million public school kids in America that are homeless, and that number has gone up by about 72 percent since the start of the last recession. As Americans, we like to think of ourselves as "the wealthiest nation on the planet", and yet the number of young kids that don't even have a roof over their heads at night just keeps skyrocketing.

There truly are "two Americas" today, and unfortunately most Americans that live in "good America" don't seem to really care too much about the extreme suffering that is going on in "bad America". In the end, what kind of price will we all pay for neglecting the most vulnerable members of our society?

If you live in "good America", I very much encourage you to read an excellent piece about homelessness in New York City that was just published in the New York Times. What some young kids have to go through on a nightly basis should break all of our hearts...

She wakes to the sound of breathing. The smaller children lie tangled beside her, their chests rising and falling under winter coats and wool blankets. A few feet away, their mother and father sleep near the mop bucket they use as a toilet. Two other children share a mattress by the rotting wall where the mice live, opposite the baby, whose crib is warmed by a hair dryer perched on a milk crate.

Could you imagine having your own family live like that? The name of the little girl in the story is Dasani, and every night her family sleeps in a city-run homeless shelter that sounds like it is straight out of a horror movie...

Her family lives in the Auburn Family Residence, a decrepit city-run shelter for the homeless. It is a place where mold creeps up walls and roaches swarm, where feces and vomit plug communal toilets, where sexual predators have roamed and small children stand guard for their single mothers outside filthy showers.

It is no place for children. Yet Dasani is among 280 children at the shelter. Beyond its walls, she belongs to a vast and invisible tribe of more than 22,000 homeless children in New York, the highest number since the Great Depression, in the most unequal metropolis in America.

You can read the rest of that excellent article right here. Sadly, there are countless other children just like Dasani that live like this day after day, month after month, year after year.

Shouldn't we be able to do better than this as a society? After all, the stock market has been hovering near record highs lately, and Wall Street is absolutely drenched with wealth for the moment.

With so much wealth floating around, why are New York City subways being "overrun with homeless" right now?

Something has gone horribly wrong.

I think that a recent editorial by David Simon, the creator of the Wire, summarized things pretty well. We are not "one America" anymore, and most of the people that live in "good America" don't really care much about those living in "bad America"...

America is a country that is now utterly divided when it comes to its society, its economy, its politics. There are definitely two Americas. I live in one, on one block in Baltimore that is part of the viable America, the America that is connected to its own economy, where there is a plausible future for the people born into it. About 20 blocks away is another America entirely. It's astonishing how little we have to do with each other, and yet we are living in such proximity.

There's no barbed wire around West Baltimore or around East Baltimore, around Pimlico, the areas in my city that have been utterly divorced from the American experience that I know. But there might as well be.

Once upon a time, things were different in America. Nobody resented businessmen for building strong businesses and making lots of money. And successful businessmen such as Henry Ford hired large numbers of American workers and paid them very well. He felt that his workers should make enough money to buy the cars that they were building. In those days, businessmen were loyal to their workers and workers were loyal to those that employed them.

Unfortunately, those days are long gone. Today, in business schools all over America students are taught that the sole purpose of a corporation is to make as much money as possible for the stockholders. Not that there is anything wrong with making money. But at this point we have elevated greed above all other economic goals. Taking care of one another isn't even a consideration anymore.

In the old days, big businesses actually needed our labor. But that is now no longer the case. Today, corporations are shipping millions of our jobs overseas and they are replacing as many of uswith technology as they possibly can. The value of the labor of the working man is declining with each passing day.

As a result, the fortunes of big business and American workers are increasingly diverging. For example, the disconnect between employment levels and stock prices has never been greater in this country. If you doubt this, just check out this chart.

And instead of fixing things, Barack Obama is negotiating a secret treaty which will result in millions more American jobs being shipped overseas. The following is a brief excerpt about this secret treaty from an Australian news source...

The government has refused the Senate access to the secret text of the trade deal it is negotiating in Singapore, saying it will only be made public after it has been signed.

As the final round of ministerial talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership resumed on Sunday, Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote to each of the 12 participating nations warning that the deal and the secrecy surrounding it presented ''grave risks''.

So why aren't we hearing much about this secret treaty from U.S. news sources?

If this is going to affect millions of American jobs, shouldn't the mainstream media be making a big deal out of this?

And even if we weren't losing millions of jobs to the other side of the planet, we would still be losing millions of jobs to advancements in technology. In fact, a CNBC article that was posted earlier this week seems to look forward to the day when nobody will have to worry about the low pay that fast food workers get anymore because they will all be replaced by droids...

Maybe so, but as fast food workers protest low wages and the president of the United States equates hard work with the right to decent pay, the rise of technology once again proves to be no stunt, or laughing matter. McDonald's, where food production is already about as mechanized as food science allows, stopped updating the famous number "served" figure at its restaurants back in 1994—just short of 100 billion—but how long will it be before trillions are served their burgers and fries by a drone, after being cooked by a droid? Those machines work for cheap, and the best thing is, they have no concept of hard work, or dignity, or the foresight to consider whether or not the "cool" things they can do ultimately contribute, or detract, from a strong, consumer-dependent economy.

So what is the solution to all of this?

Where will the millions of desperately needed jobs for "bad America" come from?

Well, it appears that good ideas are in short supply these days. In fact, some of the ideas being promoted by our "leaders" are absolutely insane. For example, one prominent entrepreneurrecently suggested that the solution to our employment crisis is for Congress to pass an immigration bill which would bring in 30 million more low-skilled workers over the next ten years...

Middle class Americans face a tough future because robots and machinery are eliminating their jobs, according to Steve Case, an entrepreneur who earned roughly $1 billion by creating the first successful internet firm, America Online.

But Congress could help the situation by passing an immigration bill that would import some foreign entrepreneurs and almost 30 million low-skilled workers over the next decade, Case told an audience of D.C. lobbyists and lawyers gathered on Tuesday by the business-backed Bipartisan Policy Center.



Credit to Altheadlines.com

The Precedent Has Been Set To Rob Your Pensions

Christian: Muslims ‘slaughtering us like chickens’

Africa is a place of barbarism. It is also home to many Christians. As a result, Christians are suffering the effects of barbarism while many Americans remain wrapped up in the latest football scores, fascinated by the amount of snow on the field. Here is a report via the Central African Republic.

Via the AP (h/t GWP):

Thousands of Christian civilians sought refuge at an airport guarded by French soldiers Friday, fleeing from the mostly Muslim ex-rebels with machetes and gunswho rule the country a day after the worst violence to hit the chaotic capital in nine months.

When several French helicopters landed at the airport, people sang with joy as they banged on plastic buckets and waved rags into the air in celebration.

Outside the barbed wire fences of the airport, bodies lay decomposing along the roads in a capital too dangerous for many to collect the corpses. Thursday’s clashes left at least 280 dead, according to national radio, and have raised fears that waves of retaliatory attacks could soon follow.

“They are slaughtering us like chickens,” said Appolinaire Donoboy, a Christian whose family remained in hiding.

Here is a video report from a CNN correspondent:

Australia Wants Its Gold Back



Gold repatriation has been a hot topic in the last 2 years. After Germany, Venezuela, the Netherlands, Finland, Poland, Ecuador, Switzerland, it could be Australia’s turn.

The latest campaign baseline is “Return Aussie Gold” initiated by an Australian volunteer. On his campaign site he writes the following:

There is unprecedented structural change underway in the international gold market due to growing uncertainty around the global financial system. There are also substantial reasons for concern associated with storing Australia’s Gold Reserves in London.

As Australians let’s join together and petition The Federal Government to immediately act prudently and physically repatriate Australia’s Gold Reserves.

The ”Return Aussie Gold” website has a petition which should be signed by as much as possible people and returned as a hard copy in order to be valid. Go to the petition page.

From the FAQ section of the website:

Where is Australia’s gold and how much room is needed to store it on Australian soil?

Australia has 80 tonnes of gold which is managed by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) as part of its foreign reserves assets. The RBA’s PR department has stated that Australia’s 80 tonnes of Gold Reserves is stored at the Bank of England, in London for cost efficiency and security reasons. However, Australia has international standard bullion storage facilities with capacity to store Australia’s gold at cost competitive rates. Also the cost to build a new Federal Government owned facility is negligible when compared to the current value of Australia’s gold ($3.3 billion).

To store Australia’s gold reserves, how much room is needed? A stack of 80 cubes (80 tonnes) would measure approximately 1.44m x 1.80m x 1.44m, which is smaller than a small car. Realistically, gold is stored in 12.5kg [400oz] bars on steel pallets, so 80 tonnes would take up an area around the size of an average Australian lounge room.

Thousands of tonnes of gold are transported around the world every year; therefore repatriating Australia’s gold would be a straight forward exercise.

Why is it critically important to repatriate Australia’s gold reserves back to Australian soil?

“Possession is nine-tenths of the law,” an expression meaning that ownership is easier to maintain if one has possession of something, or difficult to enforce if one does not.

Australia holds two main assets as foreign reserves, i.e. gold and currencies. Gold only makes up 6% of the total value.

Credit to GOLD SILVER WORLDS